Happy Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Jean-Francois Roberval is commissioned to colonize New France. The Pemberton Medicine Company is incorporated. James Naismith publishes the rules of basketball and Wikipedia is launched. The birthday club includes Moliere, Richard Martin, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Today's readings are from King's "The Three Evils of Society," and "A Knock at Midnight."

The U.S. Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris, which formalized peace with England and independence for the United States. Happy birthday to Emily Hahn and Maureen Dowd. And a reading from Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass."

Emile Zola publishes "J'accuse!" and exposes the French military's deceit during the Dreyfus Affair. Happy birthday to Shonda Rhimes - and a reading from Zola's "J'accuse!"

The birthday club includes Laura Adams Armer, Jack London, Haruki Murakami, and Issa Rae - and a reading from London's "Call of the Wild."

Louis B. Mayer announces the creation of the American Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the U.S. Surgeon General publishes the report "Smoking and Health," and happy birthday to Aldo Leopold - with a reading from Leopold's "The Sand County Almanac."

Thomas Paine publishes "Common Sense," "The New England Journal of Medicine" publishes "Addiction Rare in Patients Treated with Narcotics," the birthday club includes Stephen Ambrose, Jim Croce, Donald Fagen, Pat Benatar, and Shawn Colvin - and a reading from Voltaire's "Candide."

The iPhone is introduced to the world, the birthday club includes Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Krantz, and Joan Baez - and a reading from de Beauvoir's "The Second Sex."

The first U.S. State of the Union, the birthday club includes Gypsy Rose Lee and Graham Chapman - and a reading from "O Pioneers!" by Willa Cather.

Marian Anderson becomes the first person of color to perform on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera and happy birthdays to Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson and Zora Neale Hurston - with a reading from Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God."

FDR delivers his "Four Freedoms" speech, and happy birthday to Charles Sumner and Alan Watts - and a reading from Watts.